SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- The Utah Jazz began life without John Stockton and Karl Malone in rousing fashion.
Carlos Arroyo scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and added a career-high 13 assists as the Jazz erased a six-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 99-92 triumph over the Portland Trail Blazers.
After enjoying the productivity of future Hall of Famers Malone and Stockton for more than 15 years, Utah is facing a potentially long season with an influx of at least five new faces.
"I thought our guys played really hard, especially down the stretch," said Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who is beginning his 16th season with the club. "It looked like we had a little bit of an idea of what we were trying to do. ... and the guys played well."
Among those expected to take on added responsibility is the 24-year-old Arroyo, a journeyman point guard from Puerto Rico who averaged 2.8 points in 44 games last season as the third-stringer behind Stockton and Mark Jackson, who are 1-2 on the all-time assists list.
But Arroyo took over in the fourth quarter, making a series of good decisions down the stretch.
"I think we did a great job as a team," Arroyo said. "We can never give up and that's the most important thing. We can be down and we're not going to give up, we're going to keep on fighting and that is what happened tonight."
Andrei Kirilenko chipped in 16 points, including a key dunk with 1:47 remaining.
Swingman Raja Bell, one of the offseason acquisitions, tied a career high with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting off the bench.
"Carlos I thought played terrific, Raja did a terrific job for us, Andre was sensational down the stretch," Sloan added. "It was fun to get a win; that is what you play this game for."
"That's the makeup of our team," Bell said. "We got to play hard and we got to play hard from the jump on until the last whistle in order to have a chance in games. I think when we do that a lot of teams don't play hard most of the game, so we'll have chance to get back into the game and pull them out at the end."
Zach Randolph scored 22 points and Rasheed Wallace 21 for the Trail Blazers, who allowed Utah to shoot 57.5 percent (42-of-73) from the field.
Portland led by 13 with just over six minutes left in the third quarter but was clinging to an 81-78 lead with 6:37 to go. Bell, who eclipsed his previous career high of 16 points, made a 3-pointer 35 seconds later to tie the game and had a layup with 5:35 left to give the Jazz the lead for good.
Kirilenko followed with a layup and another jumper by Bell gave Utah an 87-81 edge with 4:08 remaining.
The second of two free throws by Randolph got Portland within 87-85 with 2:55 to go but Arroyo answered with a jumper with just over two minutes to go.
Arroyo and Kirilenko sealed the win with four points apiece down the stretch. Utah made all six of its free throw in the final quarter.
"I played with Carlos in college so I know his game and I know he'll come every night and he's very capable so I'm not surprised by his 13 assists," Bell said.
"I don't know at what point we lost it," Portland coach Maurice Cheeks said. "We had a timeout, up six points, and then just played a terrible fourth quarter. Our whole game let up, not just the rebounding, our whole game. Our team looked uncomfortable out there, and just let up."
Utah first-round draft pick Aleksandar Pavlovic, a 6-7 forward from Serbia and Montenegro - had an impressive debut with 14 points and two blocks in 21 minutes.
Damon Stoudamire had a solid game for Portland, making 7-of-12 shots and collecting 16 points, six assists and two turnovers in 41 minutes.
Portland, which has lost seven of its last eight meetings with Utah, shot just 43 percent (36-of-84).
"Once they got into a rhythm we started rushing our shots," Cheeks said. "Pretty much the whole game we had easy shots, we just started rushing them."
"We're a team that's got to play hard every night," Stoudamire said. "We didn't play hard for four quarters, and they kept on playing hard, and it seem that they outwilled us."
